Okay, I’ll fess up that this one is a bit of a cheat, but only a bit. Last night I started watching a different film but working OT at the day-job apparently had hit me fairly solidly and before 10pm, and that’s early for me, I found myself unable to keep my eyes focused. So today I will write about a film I watched for the first time earlier this month.
In an earlier post I referred to Hammer Studios approach to horror films as being Bloodshed and Bosoms. This really kicked in with their production of The Curse of Frankenstein starring Peter Cushing as the immoral Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as the creature. Where Universal Studios avoided explicit images of body part and organs Hammer presented them full frame, widescreen, and in color. Ladies wore low cut dresses and the combination of the grotesque and the titillating proved to be box office gold.

Fast-forward to 1970 and the Hammer adaptation of the vampire story Carmilla. Like a drug addiction what shocked and titled last year produces a lesser effect this time around, so when we get over a decade into the cycle something more is needed to shock the box office.

The Vampire Lovers stars the incomparable Ingrid Pitt as Carmilla a vampire who plays the part of a young girl, she is supposed to be 16 or at least look like that but Pitt did not look like a teenager, whose plays upon the sympathies of others for shelter and protection, allowing her to hunt their young daughters as her victims. Being that this is 1970 and even on the other side of the Atlantic standards in film were rapidly changing. Hammer no longer happy with simply low cut gowns dives into nudity for titillation and a strong lesbian subtext for their shock value. Though honestly it’s not that deeply buried and it may be more accurate to call it text and not sub-text.

The film works overall and Pitt, thought hardly looking 16, delivers a nice performance as a vampire that more than a little conflicted. There are some variations on the vampire lore with new limitation and less super human abilities that make this film something more than simply a retelling of Dracula with the cast gender flipped.

This is a movie that my darling sweetie-wife had wanted to see for sometime, but it has rarely been available in the United States. Luckily there is a blu-ray release of the UK cut and it was less than $10, so I happily bought a copy so we could watch it together. The film is decent enough that I have no plans to see the disc used, but rather it will take its place in my library.